Environmental economics & Sustainable Development are at the cutting-edge of economic research and teaching dealing with some of the most pressing issues of our time, such as Climate Change.
In successfully applying standard microeconomic analysis to the field of the natural environment and sustainable development, economists have challenged many erroneous, but strongly held preconceptions of policy makers and environmentalists alike. For example, the course will show that the efficient level of environmental pollution is, in general, not zero and that there is no risk of running out of fossil fuel non-renewable resources any time soon.
Conversely, however, policy makers fail to understand the fundamental drivers behind renewable resource extinction (particularly species loss), are over-optimistic when it comes to the environmental consequences of economic growth and insufficiently grasp the obstacles toward achieving strong multilateral agreements for solving international and global environmental problems.
This course aims to provide students with a sound knowledge and understanding of the major results of environmental economics. Its intention is to deliver the fundamentals of rigorous economic analysis for continued undergraduate studies at a higher level, or graduate studies of environmental economics.
Lecturer
